State suspends psychologist Mark G. Tully; diagnosed mother he'd never met with "parental alienation syndrome"

July 25, 2013

On or about April 28, 2013, the Ohio State Board of Psychology suspended psychologist Mark G. Tully for 14 days.

According to the Board’s documents, Tully was retained by the attorney for a father in a “highly acrimonious” custody dispute.

The mother, who was the primary residential parent had, in 2007, sought a modification of the parents’ shared parenting plan.

The court ordered a custody evaluation (conducted by “Dr. X”) which resulted in a recommendation for less parenting time for the father, who then filed for sole custody of the children. Tully was retained by the father’s attorney to review materials specific to the custody dispute, including Dr. X’s report, guardian ad litem reports and the mother’s counseling records.

Tully testified on behalf of the father, rendering psycho-legal opinions about the parents’ parenting abilities based only on the material he had reviewed. He never met the mother or children and only briefly met the father when he delivered his payment to Tully.

Despite his lack of direct contact with the family, his testimony included statement, opinion and conclusions including but not limited to the following: He would have reached a different conclusion than Dr. X.; that he did not agree with Dr. X’s recommendations; that the mother was engaging in “parental alienation”; that the father was “salt of the earth” but the mother was “quite unstable” and that there was no doubt in his mind that the children needed to be removed from the mother’s custody. He also confirmed that he was the only professional suggesting a change in custody and also was the only professional who’d had no direct contact with the mother and children.